An investigation by Nation.Africa has established that miners in Siaya County no longer report accidents in collapsed mines and do everything possible to conceal them from authorities for fear of job losses and other repercussions.
As they struggle to shake off the nightmare of what happened at the Abimbo mines in 2021 where a mine caved in and killed two miners after trapping 10, artisanal workers in Siaya County have become secretive about their activities.
In what turned out to be a painstaking search for their trapped colleague, it took the miners 205 days before they could trace and retrieve the body of Tom Okwach from the collapsed mine and hand it to members of his family for burial.
The accident at the mine highlighted the poor working conditions and the risks miners exposed themselves to while going about their day to day activities in search of a livelihood.
He said: “We carried the body at night on a boda boda motorbike to a public health facility and notified close relatives of the accident. Burial arrangements were hurriedly made and the body was interred.”
Another miner died days later after the shaft collapsed and he was buried with other two people.
Another miner at K'ogelo mines in Alego Usonga said: “When there are deaths, we quickly inform family members and close relatives, who are also aware of the dangers associated with artisanal mining. People have not stopped driving or travelling because there are accidents along the highways, miners face similar risks."
